How to Buy a Marketing Agency

This is a fast-paced sector with exciting opportunities that you can take advantage of!

There are a lot of opportunities in marketing and these opportunities are growing.

Running a marketing agency, though, is something that requires specific knowledge and expertise. If you are looking to buy, it will be important that you have these skills or that you have a team that you are confident has the know-how and experience to operate a successful marketing agency.

Here are some things to consider if you're looking to buy a marketing agency.

Sector Overview

There has been a dramatic shift in the role of a marketing agency in recent years as they have become more focused on the science behind marketing, while the creative and conceptual roles in the agencies have come to play a smaller part.

Marketing, however, still fills an important role for a lot of companies and buying the right marketing agency could position you to snap up the business that this creates.

Keeping a foot in both the creative and data-driven camps will help your agency to be the one-stop-shop that many companies are looking for as they try to avoid having to waste time going from agency to agency for different solutions.

It is a challenge to run a cost-effective agency that is able to successfully be diversified. You will need to be completely up to date with the market and trends of the sector and be able to find new ways to become useful to customers in this very difficult field where businesses are not only competing with other agencies but also in-house departments.

Source the perfect business

Once you have decided that a marketing agency is an ideal direction in which to move forward, it will be important that you choose the right one to buy. In order to do so, you will have to consider your needs against your budget so that you can find the perfect balance that will get you the ideal business.

When considering which marketing agency to buy you will need to consider the brand reputation and the type of customers that the company has. Consider who the competitors of that particular agency are. What will make your business different and able to attract customers over and above these other agencies?

Buying a business like a marketing agency has considerations that are different to buying something like a coffee shop, hotel or shop in that it is less reliant on the physical location of the business due to the way that it can conduct so much of its business online. Having cheaper premises in order to put more money into the online presence of the business may be something that you want to consider.

Raise Finance

Finding finance to purchase your new marketing agency will take a lot of time and effort. You will need to have a clear business plan that you have drawn up in order to show potential lenders or investors what it is about your idea that will make it succeed where, perhaps, others have not.

You will also need to present them with why it is that your skills make a marketing agency the perfect business for you. Never underestimate the amount of research that you should do in order to be in a good position to ask for finance.

Making an offer and doing due diligence

Make sure that the offer that you make is realistic. It can be useful to get the help of a specialist so that you can understand what a fair price would be.

Once you have made an offer and the negotiations begin, you will need to conduct due diligence so that you can be sure that you are not paying more than the business is really worth. Again, at this point, it may be helpful to get the help of lawyers or accountants in order to help you go through the books and inventory of the businesses that you are looking to purchase.

Keep in mind that if the business doesn’t want to make certain contracts or accounts available to you, there may be something that they are wanting to hide. A business should be happy to show you, a future buyer, anything you need in order to make an informed decision about your purchase.

Finalise the deal

Once you have finished checking that this really is the right business for you and you have negotiated a price that both you and the buyer find agreeable, it is time to get a lawyer to draw up contracts so that you can finally make the purchase.

Now it’s time for the difficult work to begin as the owner of a marketing agency. Get started at BusinessesForSale.com.

About the author

Anthea Taylor is Content Producer at Dynamis and writes for all titles in the Dynamis stable including BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com and PropertySales.com as well as other industry publications.

Related

I have recently delivered three marketing workshops where it appeared to be me who learned new angles.

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